It is customary in automation technology for data to be exchanged between a peripheral unit of an automation device and a sensor, for example a sensor for measuring a temperature or pressure, or an actuator, for example an actuator in the form of a positioner for control valves, via analog current signals in the 0-20 mA or, as the case may be, 4-20 mA range. For this purpose the automation device has peripheral units which are provided with a pre-specified number of analog inputs and analog outputs, with said peripheral units exhibiting corresponding internally specified hardware properties so they can be used as an analog-input or analog-output unit. Peripheral units of said type that can also be used in redundant automation devices are known from Siemens Catalog ST 70, Sections 1 and 5, 2003 edition. Redundant automation devices, for example the SIMATIC 57-400H automation devices known from said catalog, are employed in areas of automation technology in which more stringent than usual demands are placed on the automation system's availability and hence fault tolerance. These are areas in which a system stoppage would have a very costly impact. Only redundant systems can here meet the demands placed on availability. The highly available SIMATIC S7-400H will continue operating even if parts of the control have failed due to one or more faults. It has redundantly configured centralized functions and is constructed having two separate central devices as control computers. Said two control computers process the same processing programs cyclically and synchronously. They monitor each other and independently determine which control computer is active, which is to say actually controls the process via its output data. For this purpose data is exchanged between the two control computers via a redundancy coupling. Redundantly embodied non-centralized peripheral units into which digital input/output modules are plugged depending on the individual application are in each case connected to the two control computers by means of a field bus. Process input information obtained with the aid of measuring transducers or encoders is forwarded by the peripheral unit to both control computers. In what is termed “hot standby” mode both control computers process the same control program simultaneously in the absence of any faults, though only one control computer is active, which is to say only one control computer's output data is further processed for controlling the process. In the event of a fault the intact device will assume sole control of the process. The devices are for that purpose automatically given the same application program, the same data components, the same process image contents, and the same internal data such as, for instance, times, counters, flags etc. This ensures that both devices are always up-to-date and can, in the event of a fault, each continue performing the controlling function alone. Although process output data, by which the signals requiring to be fed out by the peripheral unit to the actuators are pre-specified, is offered to the peripheral unit via both field buses when there are no faults, it only evaluates the control data received from one of the field buses. The respectively connected control computer can thus be designated as being the active control computer.